Currently, various government agencies collect taxes through the sale of fuel, such as gasoline. The federal government may tax fuel by a certain amount (such as 24.4 cents per gallon), and a state where the fuel is sold may tax an additional amount. The amount taxed by different states may vary significantly: as high as 64.5 cents per gallon in California, and as low as 18.4 cents per gallon in Alaska.
The more a vehicle is driven, the more fuel the vehicle will consume. Greater fuel consumption leads to more fuel needing to be purchased. With greater fuel purchases, the greater the taxes paid to the taxing government agencies. Therefore, the more a vehicle is driven, the greater the fuel taxes that will be paid to a state (or other taxing agency) through purchase of fuel. States may rely on these taxes to fund at least a portion of their transportation budgets, including road and bridge building and maintenance, snow removal, etc. However, such a taxing arrangement may only successfully link fuel taxes paid for an amount of road usage if: 1) the fuel purchased is taxed, and 2) the fuel is taxed by the jurisdiction where the vehicle will travel.
While in the past it may have been typical that fuel was purchased for vehicles from an entity such as a gas station (that collects fuel taxes), the future may yield vehicles that are fueled using alternative sources. For example, vehicles are now under development that rely solely on electrical power—no gasoline being necessary. It may be possible for such electric cars to be “fueled” from a typical electrical source, such as a household electrical outlet. Using an electrical source to power vehicles may provide significant advantages in emissions and operator convenience (e.g., “fueling” at home); however such fueling arrangements may disrupt federal, state, and local fuel taxing structures. If fuel is not purchased from an entity that collects fuel taxes, federal, state, and local revenue borne from fuel taxes may wither. Further, it may not be practical for taxing jurisdictions to attempt to determine the amount of electricity used to “fuel” a vehicle separately from electricity used to power other devices.
Whether electric vehicles become common or not, it may be possible to evade jurisdictions' fuel taxes by purchasing fuel in a different jurisdiction. If fuel taxes are lower in a nearby state, a vehicle operator may travel from his current state to the nearby state to purchase fuel, without regard to where the vehicle's travel will occur. For example, a person driving in northern California (64.5 cent per gallon fuel tax) may drive a short distance to southern Oregon (43.4 cents per gallon fuel tax) to purchase fuel, despite the person's majority of driving occurring in California. Such an arrangement, deprives California of fuel taxes despite the person traveling California's roads, and awards the fuel taxes to a state whose roads will be largely unused by the person.
The described invention may serve to remedy these and other problems.